Let’s talk about the silent crisis in healthcare—midlife women’s health.
I’ve heard it too many times to count:
“If I were someone else, they’d be taking this more seriously.”
And you know what? You’re not wrong.
This week on Medical Disruptors, I sat down with Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz—a board-certified OB/GYN, trained at Cedars-Sinai, who left the traditional system behind after 25 years of trying to make it work from the inside. Together, we unpacked everything that’s broken about how we approach midlife women’s health—and what we can do about it.
If you’ve ever walked out of an appointment feeling brushed off, told your symptoms were “normal,” or handed a vague plan to “watch and wait,” this episode is for you.
Stick with me—this blog goes deep into what we discussed, and why it matters for anyone who cares about fixing midlife women’s health.
The 7-Minute Appointment Is Failing Us
Dr. Suzanne started her career the traditional way: surgical training, prestigious residency, a full-scope OB/GYN practice. But the longer she practiced, the more she realized the system wasn’t built for real healing—especially not when it comes to midlife women’s health.
We talked about the pressure physicians face in an insurance-driven model: back-to-back patients, complex documentation, administrative bloat. It’s no surprise that so many of us are burnt out. What’s shocking is how that burnout trickles down to patients—particularly women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond.
They’re expected to accept fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and bone loss as inevitable. Appointments last seven minutes. And if they want a real plan? They’re expected to write it themselves.
Dr. Suzanne put it best: “I don’t want seven minutes. I want 60.”
That’s what midlife women’s health demands—and deserves.
The System Wasn’t Designed for Us
A big theme in our conversation was how conventional medicine was never built with midlife women in mind. Clinical research was historically centered around the 70-kg white male, and education around menopause, perimenopause, and post-reproductive care is still shockingly sparse—even in OB/GYN training.
It’s not just a lack of knowledge. It’s a lack of value.
Midlife women are often treated as irrelevant once their childbearing years are over. It’s misogyny, plain and simple—and ageism layered right on top.
One of the most powerful things Dr. Suzanne said during our talk was:
“Tell me you don’t like older women without telling me you don’t like older women.”
Midlife women’s health is not niche. It’s not secondary. It is essential healthcare for half the population for at least a third of their lives.
Ayurveda, Integration, and What Healing Actually Looks Like
What I love about Dr. Suzanne’s approach is that she didn’t throw out her clinical training—she built on it. She studied Ayurvedic medicine, botanical therapies, and integrative modalities not to replace conventional care, but to deepen it.
We talked about the power of looking at the whole person—mind, body, and environment—not just their labs. The ancient traditions she studied understood the microbiome, stress, and digestion long before Western medicine had the language for it. They saw imbalance coming before it showed up on paper.
And guess what? Her patients felt it too.
Once word got out that Dr. Suzanne was open to talking about herbs, lifestyle, and deeper root causes, patients started seeking her out—because they were desperate for someone who didn’t just hand them a prescription and send them out the door.
That’s the kind of care midlife women’s health requires: expansive, curious, unhurried, and respectful of complexity.
Burnout Isn’t Just a Provider Problem
Another huge takeaway? Patients aren’t the only ones feeling dismissed.
So are providers.
I’ve said it before: the system is burning out clinicians at a record pace. Primary care physicians, OB/GYNs, and yes—your favorite nurse practitioner—are leaving conventional settings because they physically, emotionally, and ethically can’t sustain it.
Dr. Suzanne shared that she almost left clinical medicine entirely. That’s how broken it got. The paperwork, the limitations, the feeling that she was letting her patients down because she couldn’t give them the time or tools they truly needed—it became too much.
But instead of walking away, she pivoted. She launched a concierge-style, membership-based practice focused entirely on midlife women’s health. Now, she gets to spend 45 to 60 minutes with each patient, dig into root causes, and create individualized plans that make sense.
She also became Chief Clinical Officer of Monarch MD—a startup that helps other clinicians make that same leap. She’s not just changing her own practice. She’s helping transform the system from the inside.
What Role Do Nurse Practitioners Play?
Throughout this conversation, I couldn’t help but think about the thousands of nurse practitioners who are stepping into the gaps left by traditional systems. As more MDs and DOs leave primary care, the responsibility to provide midlife women’s health support is increasingly falling on nurse practitioners.
And they’re stepping up.
Nurse practitioners are uniquely positioned to offer patient-centered, lifestyle-informed care. Many already work in underserved areas where midlife women’s health isn’t a priority for large systems. And more and more are starting their own practices, building clinics, and meeting women where they are.
Still, the barriers are real. Time, reimbursement, and access to diagnostic tools remain a challenge—especially in Medicaid and insurance-based models. But the energy and innovation in the nurse practitioner space is one of the most hopeful signs we have.
If we want a future where midlife women’s health isn’t an afterthought, nurse practitioners will be a critical part of making that happen.
The Future of Midlife Women’s Health Is Patient-Driven
Here’s the thing: no one’s coming to fix this for us.
Every major shift in women’s health—from birth to breastfeeding to menopause—has come from the ground up. From patients refusing to be ignored. From providers willing to take a risk. From communities demanding more.
Midlife women’s health is no different.
The women I see in my practice—and the nurse practitioners I work with every day—are already rewriting the rules. They’re investing in themselves. They’re asking harder questions. They’re refusing to settle for less.
And the more they push, the more the system has to respond.
Ready to Rethink What’s “Normal”?
If you’ve ever walked out of an appointment feeling small, confused, or dismissed—you’re not imagining it. You’ve been gaslit. And you’ve been trained to thank them for it.
But that ends here.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating midlife women’s health—or trying to support those who are. Whether you’re a nurse practitioner rethinking how you want to practice, or a patient trying to reclaim your care, Dr. Suzanne’s story is powerful, personal, and packed with real-world solutions.
🎧 Listen to the full episode of Medical Disruptors
Let’s rebuild the system—on our own terms.